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Adorable Video Of 'Super Mom' Duck With 56 Ducklings In Tow Spotted On A Minnesota Lake

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A picture snapped by amateur photographer Brent Cizek, depicting a common merganser duck being followed by over fifty ducklings, has quickly gone viral.

One morning, Cizek went out for a walk around Lake Bemidji in Bemidji, Minnesota to take photos, and took just one camera and one lens.

The day was windy, so Cizek explained that it probably wasn't the best idea to take the boat out on to Lake Bemidji. However, he decided to carry on, although the waves were tossing his boat around.

He steered his boat at the shoreline, and then he saw what seemed to be a bevy. He edged nearer and saw a duck, followed by a trail of ducklings.

He said the closer he got, the more his heart began racing as he had never witnessed something like that before.

As he got closer, the group began swimming back out into the lake. He reached for his binoculars to get a closer look, he started snapping away, firing off as many shots as he could.

He took about 50 images and prayed that at least one was going to turn out sharp as the waves were too strong and he could not keep them in a frame. A staggering 56 ducklings were following the super duck mama.

He raced home to check the photos and found one that he liked and was in focus.

He shared it on social media and it was not long before that intimate shot of the extraordinary family exploded. It fascinated everybody who it.

The picture — and the story behind it — was even featured on the National Audubon Society’s website.

According to Healthy Food House, Cizek is an ardent wildlife lover and a supporter of the organization’s aim to protect birds and their natural environments. He, therefore, hopes the image will inspire people to stand up for animals as Mama Merganser did for her many ducklings.

Cizek said the mom looks proud and stoic in the photo, and he wondered how she's taking care of all of her ducklings.

Although all of them are unlikely hatched from her eggs, mergansers do have broods that large. They usually lay up to only 13 eggs at a time, but they don't lay all of them in their own nest.

Ducks often lay their eggs in other ducks’ nests trying to make sure that at least some of their offspring survive. The number of ducklings can also be explained by the practice of separated ducklings to attach themselves to ducks that look like their mothers.

On his latest visit, Cizek counted the ducklings again, and it seems that Mama Merganser had picked up more babies along the way, so they were 76 with her.